This document discusses social espionage, which involves drawing competitive intelligence from rivals' social media presence. Social espionage combines traditional competitive intelligence gathering with analysis of information on social media to gain strategic advantages. It outlines how firms can now access customer relationships through social media and describes tactical, operational, and strategic activities that constitute social espionage, such as intercepting messages, encouraging customer switching, and identifying weaknesses. Benefits include gaining insights at tactical, operational, and strategic levels, but it also carries risks. The document advocates a strategic grid approach and defines social espionage as a combination of competitive intelligence, social media monitoring, and a "Machiavellian" mindset.

1. SOCIAL ESPIONAGE
DRAWING BENEFIT FROM
COMPETITORS’ SOCIAL MEDIA
PRESENCE
Joni Salminen, MSc. (Econ.)
William Degbey, MSc. (Econ. & Bus. Adm.)
Turku School of Economics
Markkinoinnin laitos
20014 Turun yliopisto, Finland
joni.salminen@tse.fi | william.degbey@tse.fi

2. ” Facebook admits hiring PR firm to
smear Google”
“The clash of the Internet Giants reached new heights after a spokesman
for Facebook confirmed to Daily Beast that Facebook paid a high
level Public Relation firm to publish and spread stories against
Google throughout the media to study various methods to examine
the allegations that Google has been violating user privacy.”
(Slashdot, 12th May 2011)

3. Competitive intelligence?
” the action of defining, gathering, analyzing,
and distributing intelligence about products,
customers, competitors and any aspect of the
environment needed to support executives and
managers in making strategic decisions for an
organization” (wiki)
 Goal is to gain competitive advantage

4. Social media?

5. Social
Espionage
From manufacturing
to service industries
From privacy to
corporate
transparency
From trade secrets
to customers
relationships
From closed dialogue to
social media
Trends promoting shift to
social espionage

6. Information can be…
• private
• public
• AND ALSO
• semi-public/private

7. Rivals are now able to tap into
the customer relationship (!)
FIRM CUSTOMER
RIVAL

8. What constitutes social espionage?
Tactical activity Rationale
Intercept messages to understand competitor’s
relationship to its customers
Identify competitor’s weak points to create offensive tactics
Launch rapid promotions to encourage switching
behavior
Use direct selling to encourage switching
behavior
Participate in discussion to generate leads
Identify unsatisfied customers to generate leads

9. What constitutes social espionage?
Operational activity Rationale
Analyze customer’s
communicative styles
to build customer profiles
Analyze customer complaints to encourage switching
behavior
to improve own products
to avoid “easy” mistakes

10. What constitutes social espionage?
Strategic activity Rationale
Analyze macro-competitive data to detect patterns
to detect deviations
Identify competitor’s weak
points
to improve own positioning
Focus on unfilled niche to avoid direct competition
Drop prices to crush competition
Play benchmark to improve own social
media strategy
Play war-game to predict competitor’s next
moves

11. Benefits of social espionage
1. Tactical level
2. (Operational level)
3. Strategic level
…but wait, these are also risks!

12. Strategic Grid (Salminen & Degbey 2011)
Engage Not engage
Spy Jackpot “Machiavellian
payoff”
Not spy “Sucker’s
payoff”
Empty pot

13. Social espionage (100%)
=
competitive intelligence (40%)
+
social media (40%)
+
Machiavellian attitude (20%)

14. Thank you!